Organizer: Global Vietnam Studies at Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Type/Location: In Person / New York, NY
Description:
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, this conversation will center on inheriting the past and fostering hope for the future. The artists’ talk will highlight how the arts have played a powerful role in promoting peace and building bridges for new generations.
Featured speakers include poet and author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, and photographer Peter Steinhauer. Tony Bui, Artist in Residence at WEAI, will moderate the panel discussion.
This event is hosted by Asia in Action’s The Conversation Series at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
This event is hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, and is part of the three-day series 50-30: From War to Peace in Vietnam and the United States, April 30 – May 2, 2025.
About the Speakers:
Born and raised in Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is the author of 13 books in Vietnamese and English, most recently the worldwide bestselling novels The Mountains Sing and Dust Child, and the forthcoming poetry book The Color of Peace. Her writing has been translated into more than 25 languages and has received the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, the International Book Award, the BookBrowse Best Debut Award, the Lannan Literary Fellowship in Fiction as well as Runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She was named by Forbes Việt Nam as one of 20 inspiring women of 2021. She has a Ph.D in Creative Writing from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. For more information: www.nguyenphanquemai.com
Peter Steinhauer is an artist-photographer who lived and worked in Asia for 20 years, beginning in Vietnam in 1993. His photography focuses on architecture within urban landscape, man-made structure, and natural landscape. His prints are in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, and a growing number of private and corporate collections worldwide. He is a recipient of numerous international photography awards, including being named a finalist for the 2014 and 2017 Lucie Awards, a Ford Foundation grant for his multi-year work in Vietnam, three Communication Arts Photography Annual Award of Excellence awards, among others. Steinhauer’s Enduring Spirit of Vietnam was awarded Best Photography Book of the Year 2007 by Photo District News (PDN). For more information: www.petersteinhauer.com
Tony Bui is a Sundance award-winning writer, director, and producer. He is currently Artist-in-Residence at Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute and teaches in the graduate film program at Columbia’s School of the Arts. His short film Yellow Lotus won over 15 national and international festival awards. His debut feature, Three Seasons, earned the Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award, and Best Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was Vietnam’s official Oscar entry, where it was shortlisted. In 2024, Three Seasons was honored as one of ten landmark films selected to celebrate Sundance’s 40th anniversary. Tony is a recipient of the Humanitas Prize. He served seven years on the Board of Film Independent and currently sits on the Global Advisory Board of Fulbright University Vietnam.
In the summer of 2024, he led a series of public talks titled Conversations in Storytelling: Regional Voices, Global Impact across Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Beijing, uniting notable filmmakers in dialogue about the power of regional narratives. In April 2025, Tony partnered with the Criterion Channel to launch a curated program of American and Vietnamese films marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War—the first nationwide showcase of Vietnamese cinema in the U.S. Tony has written and developed projects for HBO, Warner Brothers, and NBC. His upcoming feature is inspired by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning “Napalm Girl” photograph from the Vietnam War.
Registration:
To attend the event in person, please register here.